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Topic: Our "Experiment" (Read 39440 times)

Way to persevere! Really enjoyed reading this all and congratz on the marriage and baby boy! My gf read this with me and made her think a lil more and realized that a prepper mindset maybe isn't such a bad thing. Thanks for your inspiration and best of luck to you!

How is the sign language going? We started all the kids at 6 months. Just basic like potty, sleep, milk, more, all done and hurt. If you are consistant, the kids will respond to your signs better than your speaking. When you kid cries, you can sign food, and they will instantly stop crying once they know that you understand their problem. So, keep in mind that the signing is about the kid understanding you as much as it is you understanding them.

The big one is hurt. if you can get them to tell you that a tooth is bugging them, you are way ahead of the game. I think signing is what has made the terrible twos not so bad around our house. We have done lots of foster of infant to 3, and signing helps tons. We make all the family and sitter do them also. Our oldest, now 8 works with the kids doing signs. He was responding to them at 8 months, just milk and poop. But that is 2/3s of the issues they have at that age.

Very glad to read your posts. My wife and I are moving out onto our "experiment" in about 10 days. Hopefully the yurt will be finished by then. Still, we will not have any running water or electricity when we get there either. While I know we will be fine, it is reassuring to read accounts like yours. Thanks for sharing

pokeshell...the signing has kind of taken a back burner since the new baby, we're still trying to use what we've taught him but, he spends almost every weekend with his grandparents so it's a little deconstructive. no offense to them or anything.

i've already started with the new baby, he's only a month old. lol. doing food, drink, mother father, etc.

my oldest, he's thirteen, has started trying to learn russian. he dug out some of my old pimsleur stuff. which is fine with me. lol. he now speaks almost as much russian as i do. kind of scary.

i do have some pics but, two problems... 1) i only have internet at work. 2) the pics are of pieces. i haven't had a chance to actually complete anything yet and i don't wanna post pics of basically a bunch of junk. i even had to turn my solar oven into a temporary chicken pen, for some stupid reasons.

i can't really concentrate on any ONE thing. i'm one of those types of people who's brain runs 24/7 so lately i've been re writing an old book, trying to start a new band, working on a motion comic on top of all the homestead stuff AND still looking for a second job. i'm just a mess. lol. that's probably why i never accomplish anything. HA!

hutchsteaders.. just do it man, it's gonna seem hard/weird... whatever at first but, it'll be ok. key is to think out of the box... sometimes.... REALLY out of the box.

well, boys and girls it's with a heavy heart i write this but, our experiment is over. or, at least delayed for a great while. i have, for the past week and a half been in ICU with MRSA. i had both lungs full of staph caused pneumonia, i had an incredibly large knot on my pinkie knuckle which, after they drained was still the size of a small apple. not to mention several enlarged and inflamed joints. i haven't worked in over a week, and will, at best. be looking at three weeks AFTER i get out of the hospital before i can do anything and that's if we're not talking a worse case scenario. we've already started to the paperwork to jump on and disabilities or other types of payments me might need, better safe than sorry. i still have piles of uncompleted projects laying around, which seem like that's exactly where they're gonna stay for a while.

the hardest thing to get rid of is gonna be the "septic imboli," which is essentially floating clumps of the staph that just float around my body tossing out more infection. sorry if this read's horribly but, i'm tired and really want some sleep but, i know that's not gonna happen.

That sucks! Where are you going to be living? Can you be around your kids?

I got really bad pneumonia and Sepsis that I got from one of our foster kid that had grew up in meth lab homes. He had the sh!ts the entire 3 months we had him. It almost killed me. I cleaned up a room he had taken off his diaper during his nap, and pooped everywhere.

That weekend, I was out on a quad in the morning on fresh snow on the lake at 9 am. By 9 Pm I had a fever of 102, midnight was 104.5. 9 AM the next day I was in ICU filling out my "end of life form."

Spent 4ish days in ICU and a few more in a regular room. I was able to go home with a nurse after about 10 days. Luckily, I can do 95% of my work from home. Although, I do need facetime with the clients to keep the relationships. We had the best insurance available in Minnesota at the time. normally I would have been in the hospital for an additional 3-4 weeks. I had to give myself IV for 4 weeks. It was horrible.

After 3 years, my immunity is still low, and I lost about 5-7% of my lung capacity.

But, I am still relatively healthy. Try to stay active, and eat good. I can hunt, fish, hike, all my outdoor stuff. I find my time is now more precious with my family.

For what it is worth... I have a plastic table on my back deck, the kind with the hole in the middle for an umbrella. I put a 5 gallon bucket underneath the hole and it fills up very quickly every time it rains. The dog likes to drink out of it and it is good for watering plants indoors and other misc. uses.That extra area really gathers in the rainfall.I suppose you could do something similar with a plastic rain barrel and some plastic sheeting.

sorry if this contradicts any information i posted before but, my brain and info has been a little jittery lately.

we don't know where it came from. went to the doctor with a problem with my back, she gave me some of the same old stuff i always takes for it, after about four days i was in the e.r. but, got sent home because they didn't "see it as and emergency situation."

finally got another appointment made with the original doctor, when she came in and looked at me she left the room called an ambulance, she didn't know what the problem was but, she knew i needed an e.r. i was pretty bad off when i got in, hallucinations, temporal displacement, all kinds of crazy stuff.

they even ran multiple tests to ensure i didn't have staph in my brain. both lungs were 100% full, the doctor said it was the worst case she's ever seen. both lungs full, nothing in m brain, nothing in my heart.

i was in a room for a day and a half but, to me i had been in that room for almost a week. then, they sent me to icu where i spent 3 days, i believe, in my head i was in there for a week as well, just in and out, talking to people who obviously WERE NOT just hanging out in the icu. and now i'm here in a room again, in total, as far as i can tell i've been in the hospital a total of 10 days.

the lights are about to be turned off, the landowner has tacked a sixty dollar late fee onto the land note. my lung doctor says i'm looking at about another 30 or so days before i'm "useful." at least, that's how i take it. they put my pick stints in, for longer term antibiotics use.

even if we don't lose the land i'm not gonna have the strength and energy to do what needs to be done.

not sure what we're gonna do but, i can promise ya, i'm not gonna sit around and friggin' cry about it. i've been through tougher than this i don't mind tellin' ya.

I had MRSA about two years ago during the swine flu outbreak. When I looked on the hospital website it said not to go to the emergency room if you thought you had the flu, so I stayed home for a week before I went in, in a moment of lucidity between hallucinations.

I was in the hospital for about a week and it took me about a month to recover to the point where I was capable of getting a decent work day in.

had a moment and some wifi so i thought i'd do a little update. got out of the hospital on the 29th spent 18 days in a bed. sheesh. so, i know i posted "what was wrong" before but, some of the info has changed which, happens ALOT at that hospital.

mrsa in both lungs, kidneys, right knee, right hand, septic imboli, and an ileus (which is not fun), and a blood clot trying to make it's way to my heart.

i lost 30 lbs while in the hospital and have lost several more since i've been out. i still have the pneumonia and septic imboli.

they gave me a PICC line so we can do my antibiotics ourselves. they've changed my antibiotic dose twice already and i'm currently waiting to hear what the new dose is, at first it wasn't enough (even though it was the same dose they were giving me in the hospital) NOW, it's too much. grrrrrr....

i haven't worked since october 10 and i was only able to work half weeks for the two weeks prior to that and it will apparently be "weeks and weeks and weeks" (i guess that's doctor's talk) until i'll be close to being able to work again. the wife was gonna try and go to work for a little while but, they changed my dose and there is NO WAY i can chase a two year old while hooked to an iv for nine hours a day. oh well, it is what it is.

Would you have any suggestions for people that are interested in doing something like this? Based on your trials since you began this, would there be anything you would do differently if given the chance?

Also... just a thought. I know its not going to help a lot right now, but maybe when you're back on your feet you could start a blog about your experiement. I know i'd subscribe and im sure you'd have a lot of support with this community. Might eventually be a good way to help out with some of those added homesteading costs. If you're interested in that you might want to check out some back episodes of 5 minutes with Jack.

he only part that wasn't a wonderful adventure was the Luggable Loo toilet. The sound of a flushing toilet still gives me warm fuzzies 16 years later.

I have a friend who inherited a cabin close to the riverbank up north of here — and while the property has a septic system, it is old and there are some issues. Her problem is that new laws require all kinds of monstrous B.S. to install a septic system on your property up there for environmental reasons, and for her to fix whatever was wrong with hers would have cost a fortune in just permits and all the government hassle alone. In fact, because her property was grandfathered in, it is one of the only properties where her cabin is located where you are even ALLOWED to have one.

Most people around her are using composting toilets for the same reason and you need no permit for them, and it is more environmentally friendly. She can use the compost to keep the trees on the property happy etc.

I would assume a scoop or two of sawdust to cover up your "deuce" and taking it out to the "happy trees" (as Bob Ross would say) is better than dragging out a nasty smelling chemical filled "Luggable Loo" whenever you have to drop a "2."

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Hang in there. Eventually you will get water. My neighbors gave up after three dry wells dug (in an area reknown for not having good wells) and ended up hauling 400 gallons every day for 10 years. Anything is possible with perseverance.

400 gallons a DAY??? WOW, they must have been REALLY THIRSTY. But they say you should drink lots of water to stay healthy! hahaha…

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…the more techologicaly adbanced a prep is, the more likely it is to fail.

Agree 100% — and the more likely it is a "throw away" item vs. something to be fixed. This is why I believe in old vehicles that are reliable vs. a new all-electronic vehicle. I mean, there are SOME vehicles out there RIGHT NOW that the insurance company will TOTAL just because an airbag was deployed because replacing the AIR BAG ALONE would be $20,000 — so vehicles are becoming as disposable as cell phones are.

I personally HATE driving the newer Jeep I bought when my old Cherokee was stolen. It was a bad scenario and we bought the best vehicle for the money and payment etc etc we could get, but I would much rather still have my old Cherokee vs. the new Liberty. I have already had a few electro-doo-dads fail on me that I am really not bothering to replace just yet because they are not mission critical.

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I am going to buy a couple of flashlights today for security purposes.

Sounds like a 4D cell Maglight would be a better "security" flashlight than a new fangled LED if you know what I mean!!! There's a reason cops carry them and it has nothing to do with LIGHT… I keep one in my glovebox for the same reason.

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My "stepson" has become quite the little homesteader. He's not even two yet and is following me around handing me tools, taking it upon himself to drag stuff to the burn pile, eating like a "big boy", basically just snatching stuff off the grill and munchin' down.

If your son is anything like mine he will LOVE it. I have been taking mine camping since he was less than a year old, and he just loves it. If you tell him we are going camping so he can play in the dirt he is pretty much standing at the door waiting to leave 10 seconds later. I am sure my daughter would have been the same way if I got this into her before she became a "princess" and it was too late.

The FUNNY thing is people (who are stupid) always ask me how difficult it must be to have a little baby out in the woods with you — and frankly what is the difference? It is not as if you need a bathroom for a baby that poops and pees in a diaper for one… And those are the types of concerns people have. I guess they could strap one of those plastic changing tables from the public restrooms to a tree if it would make them feel better about it.

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The neighbors came down yesterday, admitted they were just being "nosey." I find it a little odd they came by the day after were heard someone walking around. GF says they seem alright but, I haven't met them and to be honest, don't really think I want to.

Ironic that I would be moving out to the middle of nowhere to get away from having neighbors I can't stand (which describes every single place I've lived in this city in the 18 years I have lived here). Sadly, even moving to a place where my neighbor's house is a corn field away — I am still expecting to not like them. JUST ONCE I would love to have cool neighbors!!!!! JUST ONCE!!!!!

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Found out the coyotes are bad in the area, not a surprise, I grew up not too far from where the land is... Not unusual. GF knows to keep a good eye on the baby. Buying a new gun in a week or so, probably just a little .22, but, it's just 'yotes for now.

Reminds me of my mom's house where I grew up. Seems like everyone everywhere are having coyote problems these days. You see, where I grew up there were NO coyotes, and I never saw one in my entire life up there, and neither had anyone in my family. All of a sudden a few years ago they started popping up EVERYWHERE. They have attacked people's animals where my mom lives — and now that everyone has started picking them off with rifles whenever they come around, they are finding "DEP" game commission tags tagged to the ears of these things, while the DEP DENIES their EXISTENCE. Everyone I know up there keeps a rifle on hand now and are afraid to let the little ones play outside because of this. You can sit on my mom's porch and watch gangs of them working their way across the fields as we sit there picking them off with rifles etc. I would suggest something bigger than a .22 if you are trying to pick them off from across a field.

At the rate everyone is shooting them (according to my family) it should not be long before they are extinct again, regardless of how many the lying DEP introduce into the area.

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The baby's appetite has improved 4 fold. I think it's a combination of being a little healthier already, running in the yard all day beats the hell out of walking around a 12x13 hotel room, and different enviroment. He also was waaaaay more energy.

I bet he sleeps better too! The girl I am dating has a son one year older than mine, and when they are playing together they never want to go to bed at a reasonable hour, so now we MAKE THEM run around non-stop for an hour or two in the evening until they just drop and are ready for bed, and they don't even get up in the middle of the night when we do that.

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Got a sturdier grate for boiling water. The little grate on the grill wasn't handling the extended high temps too well. Four cinder blocks and voila, perfect for bath water.

I took all the baking racks out of an oven that broke on me recently for the same purpose (extra just in case grills). You can ALWAYS find free ovens listed on Craigslist or whatever on the curb, or just see them outside on garbage day. It would totally be worth grabbing them for that purpose, but I have seen people use all kinds of things as a "grill" before including chain link fence, and even a shopping cart turned on its side.

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Water is the biggest deal. We're fine without any electricity. In fact, the GF told me this weekend she "doesn't care if we get the power on." She's enjoying the lack of distraction, increased "family time" and, I'm sure, the fact that i'm not yelling at the t.v. nonstop telling people what kind of idiots they are.

DEFINITELY. Water is always the biggest issue whenever we go camping even. That is my primary concern for whatever "bug out" land I ever get my hands on.

You could easily set up a catchment system with a TARP and those 5 gallon buckets to get them filled quickly in a rainstorm. Just think about how much rain streams off of your tarp if you ever set one up on a camping trip to sit underneath. A few lengths of Paracord, a tarp set up with a "funnel" to force all of the water into a bucket (or series of buckets) and you should be able to get several gallons in a rain event. Much cleaner than whatever you would get off the roof of a building with all of the chemicals involved. I would much rather filter "tarp-bucket" water than "nasty chemical rainbow slick covered roof water" any day.

I am glad I am not the only one who yells at the TV when I see an idiot (which is pretty much every time I turn the stupid thing on).

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Tried to rig some sort of external antenna for the cell phones last night but, alas... Any ideas?

I am not sure what they have for modern phones, but I know a lot of people in Alaska who have high range antennas for their phones for the same reason. I never got to try one out on my phone at the time because the adapters were not the same, but today most phones use a micro USB and I would be shocked if there was NOT some sort of high-range antenna available for the iPhone or Android phones. I am going to google it when I am done reading this thread.

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And forget the electric coffeepot. I started making my ex (before he was my ex) coffee on the woodstove and it was easier, and he preferred it. Said it tasted like REAL coffee. $29.

YUCK!!! FORGET THE PERCOLATOR!!!!

A percolator re-gurgitates your water over the coffee grounds over and over again, and it basically ruins good coffee. A French Press is not only EASIER to brew (put in grounds, dump in boiling water, allow to steep, press screen down before drinking) — but it TASTES 1,000 times better.

In fact, coffee snobs like me will tell you a french press is the BEST way to drink coffee, much better tasting than an auto-drip because it keeps the essential oils etc from the beans intact. Takes up no counter space, and even REI sells some PRETTY BAD ASS aluminum french presses that have storage compartments for extra grounds. I always take mine backpacking with me even though my friends tell me I am silly (until they taste the coffee it makes).

But regardless, that sounds like an AWESOME adventure. I am one of the jealous ones among the crowd here. AND it is good to see people who are essentially starting from almost NOTHING and just nickel-and-diming their way into this lifestyle and doing it as they go vs. someone who is all gung-ho and has enough money to essentially build their ultimate "bunker / retreat" while spending a fortune on it, since most of us don't have that kind of money to spend!

OH WOW, I never noticed there are 3 more pages to this thread until now!

After I left for work saturday, my girlfriend heard a noise in the house. She looked up to see a squirrel pulling taco shells out of the box and eating them. She yelled at him, he tried to run off, through the hole for the old washer drain... With the taco shell in his mouth. The taco shell was too big to make it through the hole, he backed up, ran around in a circle. Looked at the hole, tried again. Taco shell caught, he backed up, ran in a circle, saw the hole and tried one more time. Backed up, ran in a circle looked, found the bigger hole for the dryer vent and hauled ass. She said she could hear him just under the hole eating taco shells. Lmao. While she was telling me the story all I could see in my head was SCRAT from the ice age flicks...

Who needs TV when you live off the grid???

LMFAO!!!

Oh man, the tripwire based blank firing system and the paintball land mine / game camera combo are priceless! I will never forget those ideas when I have my own BOL.

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notsofast, man, I am totally eating this up! This is better than watching survival shows on TV! I too am a little bit jealous. Your stories remind me of when my family moved back to our home state when I was a kid. It was interesting and a whole lot of fun.

I am enjoying this thread more than the average "survival show" on TV.

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we have, however, decided, through all of this, to recycle our grey water. gonna run the drain from the bath tub and bathroom sink to a couple of 55 gallon drums then i'm going to install a hand pump in the bathroom to pull the water from the drums to the toilet. bath water will pull double duty.

That is a great idea. Why use clean water suitable for drinking or filtering just to go to the bathroom and render it useless? Something else to keep in mind for future reference!

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and our "buddy" came by last night to visit. had the dog cowering under a dresser, both cats under the chair and girlfriend almost had a heart attack...

So much for the "guard dog" concept. It reminds me of a Siberian Husky I had as a child who was afraid of rabbits. Yeah, so much for having a dog the size of a wolf to protect you!

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found out my visitor wasn't a sasquatch... . turns out it's a 99% chance it's a bear. but, we don't eat too much honey so i think we'll be ok. never had bear meat. (i wonder if it tastes like chicken.)

Bear meat is GOOD. My grandparents tricked me into eating it for the first time as a child when they made cheeseburgers and never told me until I had eaten 2 of them I had just eaten BEAR. I would have not eaten them if they told me before I ate them.

The same tactic applies to small children who are addicted to CHICKEN NUGGETS these days (since lazy parents, or parents like me who 'just don't have time' feed the kids since they clean up easy) — just tell the kids everything they don't like is a chicken nugget (works for Brocoli, ham, and other things) until they are old enough to figure out they've been 'duped'

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said he spends most of his "t.v. time" watching monsterquest and finding bigfoot.

Those are the T.V. shows where they go out looking for Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, etc etc and never find anything right? Tell Discovery Channel to call me when they actually FIND something and I might watch!!!

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he wants us to come hang out some, might have to take him up on it. he offered to let us use his generator. can't afford the gas but, nice of him none the less and appreciated.

Glad to hear the neighbors are turning out to possibly be cool!

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some have asked about cooking over pine. we don't cook over pine when we want a bare flame, meats for example. when we're cooking in a pan the pine doesn't affect the taste AS LONG AS the smoke isn't wafting into the pot or pan. when we want a bare flame for burgers or steaks we're now using hardwoods or still charcoal but, only a little charcoal as the cost is killing me.

I always cook over wood when I am camping. I think food cooked over a campfire tastes so much better. I only pay attention to the wood I am using in terms of NOT using anything with nasty chemicals in it, just wood from the woods. Also, I pretty much only use cast iron for cooking.

Also, a coleman stove with white gas is about one of the most awesome things to have too. A gallon of coleman fuel will last me at least 2 camping seasons, and I go camping almost every weekend when it is warm outside. They are very efficient.

I got mine for $15 on craigslist and even though it is literally older than ME — it looks brand new. You can find them on there all the time if you have access to that and your area is populated enough for it to be useful (one advantage of living in a big city I suppose).

I literally have bags and bags of charcoal becasuse I hardly ever use it, and the only time I buy it is when I have a coupon or it is on a ridiculous sale. I could imagine that being VERY expensive if you depended on it every day. Wood is free if you live in the woods!

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Its encouraging to read your stories. My husband and I have a 2.5 year old and he really adapts, but me being the mom I worry about friends family and neighbors judging us and or calling the SS.

No kidding. I used to make fun of the few kids who lived this way when I was young and lived out in the country — and now as a grown up I am jealous of them. Funny how age and experience changes your whole perception of everything.

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like i said, hoping to have the power on come tuesday or so, and maybe a small chest freezer. the water line can wait. we can keep going up to the meter with buckets. but, ice is starting to become a priority. if we get a small freezer we can still keep things refridgerated in a cooler by making our own ice, which will cut another $30-$40 a month off our expenses.

Get some rolls of that reflectix bubble wrap insulation from Lowes, it is amazing how much more you can get from your ice if you insulate coolers with that stuff! I bought one roll of it for around $10 a couple of years ago and I believe this to be a lifetime supply for those kinds of needs.

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on a serious note, i can NOT get rid of the rat. the SOB has managed to eat all the bait off of the rat trap WITHOUT tripping it. i'll be damned if i know how he's doing it but, he does it every time.

Time for some poison bait unless it will be an issue with children who may get to it and eat it.

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guess i'm gonna have to take serious actions and borrow a gun. blast his ass while he's munchin' on my nutty bars.

Probably no need to shoot guns in the house over a rat!

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the globes also help refract the light which means without them you need a larger flame to cast the same amout of light which in turn leads to more fuel usage.

We used to have frosted globes for our oil lamps as a kid and they work better than clear glass for diffusion and spreading more even light across a room. The mirror idea is also good!

I will finish reading this thread tomorrow when I return to this job I can't stand and fantasize about my dream of off-grid living!

Solar oven for cooking, although the glass, insulation, reflector, etc. may be a product of higher technology, in themselves there is little to go wrong or wear out. For the times you need to cook sans sun, look up the various approaches to making a “rocket stove”.

I remember this personal alarm thing I found that had a "key" that fit in some receptacle, and if you pulled the key out of the device, an extremely high pitched alarm sound would come out of it.

Hooking one of those up to a tripwire, combined with a game camera to catch the looks on people's faces (and a record of) who set them off would be just as funny as "blanks" yet without any dangerous explosives that you are essentially leaving unattended for the possibility of someone getting hurt you never intended to.

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2000 watts at 110 is only 18 amps combined and unless you know how to synchronize AC lines, you can't just combine them so you have 2 9 amp lines. I'm not sure you can even run a swamp cooler off 9 amps, so you might be SOL for cooling with that approach.

I saw an ice maker that plugs into a 12v adapter in a vehicle over the summer. I am not sure how much of a draw it consumes, but it seemed like an interesting idea to avoid constantly buying ice in a situation like yours if it makes enough in a day. I have no experience with one of these, but it has been on my mind to check out if I find the right deal one one.

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the lights are about to be turned off, the landowner has tacked a sixty dollar late fee onto the land note. my lung doctor says i'm looking at about another 30 or so days before i'm "useful." at least, that's how i take it. they put my pick stints in, for longer term antibiotics use.

even if we don't lose the land i'm not gonna have the strength and energy to do what needs to be done.

not sure what we're gonna do but, i can promise ya, i'm not gonna sit around and friggin' cry about it. i've been through tougher than this i don't mind tellin' ya.

I finally got to the end of this thread and saw the setback you are facing. Hopefully you are able to pull out of this soon and get back on your feet! Just goes to show you never know what is going to happen.

they finally took me off of my vancomycin and removed my PICC line. saved my PICC and put it in a frame lol. the thing's huge, like 18 inches or so, ran in a vein up my arm... behind my heart, my wife freaked out a little when they pulled it out lmao. i figured i had about 131 bags of vanc over the time i was sick plus two injections of lovenox a day, PLUS coumadin.

they never did anything about the nerve damage in my foot or the torn rotator and torn muscles in my shoulder, which i guess i forgot to mention before, i messed up my shoulder one night while trying to sleep, the fever got me and i jerk out of a sleep. apparently, snatched my arm up at on odd angle. anyway, they turned around and gave me a "clean bill of health" even though i still have restricted movement in my shoulder and need to use a cane about 60% of the time still, i tried to go back to work but, the boss doesn't need me. and probably won't.

as far as a blog... my internet is so sporadic, obviously, i couldn't keep content up so, it would probably suck.

talked to a guy the other day who buried one of his good friends last week, died from pneumonia, REGULAR pneumonia, no other complications. the guy was only about 10 years older than me. **shaking head** just... kinda makes ya wonder

still not able to work. tried to help a buddy of mine the other day with a fairly simple task and it liked to have killed me. wife's still waiting to hear back on a job. christmas friggin' sucked, obviously.

got my hospital bill the other day. $78,500 give or take. and to think... my dad used to tell me i was worthless. HA!